


Newsflash

by radioactivesaltghoul



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, F/M, Fluff, No Pregnancy, Road Trips, Safe to Read if You're Triggered by Pregnancy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-14
Updated: 2020-03-14
Packaged: 2021-02-23 11:36:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,588
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23144212
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/radioactivesaltghoul/pseuds/radioactivesaltghoul
Summary: When Rey and Ben are on a post-war pilgrimage to see Naboo for the first time, theMillennium Falconbreaks down on a familiar planet where old memories are revisited, and new revelations are brought to light.
Relationships: Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 7
Kudos: 26
Collections: Reylo Charity Anthology: Volume 2





	Newsflash

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for the [2020 Reylo Charity Anthology](https://reylocharityanthology.tumblr.com/), which raised an incredible $19,000 for four different charities. I'm thrilled that I was able to be a part of it. Huge thanks for the mods for all that they did to organize it, and another huge thank you to Trish47 for being such a great beta!

“Are you sure about this?” Finn asked as Rey was packing the last of her things. “You can stick around for a little while longer and celebrate.”

“I'm sure.” Celebrating felt hollow after everything she and Ben had gone through. They missed the fighting among the massive navy of Final Order Star Destroyers because they were in the midst of their own fight against the ghost of Emperor Palpatine, who was determined to bring the two of them down.

Ben had said that Palpatine was trying to turn them against each other; if anything, it was the reason they'd decided to join forces.

When he followed the trail to Exegol, he'd gone in with the intent to destroy the former Sith Lord. Instead, he'd been offered a massive army if he killed Rey. As angry as they had been with each other, neither of them could bring themselves to kill the other. In the end, Ben wanted to bring down Palpatine and the Final Order more than he wanted to rule the galaxy with the First Order.

Their team-up had come at the end of a duel on the ruins of the Death Star II. The two of them could have easily fought until the galaxy ended, but something had fractured in that fight. Ben—still clinging on to the identity of Kylo Ren at that point—had grown tired of fighting; Rey couldn't disagree. They agreed that their alliance was purely strategic, refusing to acknowledge anything else between them. “We're the two strongest Force-sensitives the galaxy has ever seen,” Ben had said. “Palpatine doesn't stand a chance if we fight together.”

If Rey was being honest, she was just so tired of fighting at that point. She and Ben were so deeply connected that it felt like she was fighting a part of herself. They were both exhausted from being torn apart from the inside. And then they'd traveled to Exegol together, too busy strategizing to discuss anything they felt for each other. It was a distraction that Rey had appreciated, but now that the fight was over, there was nothing left to do.

“I want to go to Naboo,” Ben had said one night while they were eating a late-night dinner together. Most of the Resistance (or, rather, the New Republic again) had gone to Chandrila to begin rebuilding the government, but a handful of people including Rey, Ben, Finn, and Rose had stayed behind on Ajan Kloss.

“Naboo?” Rey tried to remember the significance of that planet. She'd never been, but the name of it felt heavy with meaning.

“It's where my grandmother was from.”

Now she remembered. It was also where his grandparents had gotten married. Thinking about that connection caused her cheeks to heat up for reasons she hoped Ben wouldn’t ask about. “Oh.”

“Do you want to come with me?“ Something about the question felt strange until Rey realized that it was the first time he'd actually asked her to join him instead of demanding it. Was he asking now because she'd admitted that she wanted to take his hand on the _Supremacy,_ after they took down Snoke's Praetorian guard together?

Ben seemed to take Rey's silence as a no while he scrambled for an explanation. “I want to do something to honor my mother’s memory. I can’t go to Alderaan, obviously. And she has no connection to Tatooine, which is where my grandfather was from, or Corellia, which is where my father was from. But I think. . .” He trailed off, searching for the words.

By that point, Rey didn't need to hear them. “Of course I will,” she said. “Leia was. . .” Saying that Leia felt like a mother figure was a strange thing to say to Ben. “She meant a lot to me, too.”

He smiled at her. It wasn't much, just a small smile, but the sight of it softened something in her. “Thank you,” he said quietly.

Rey hadn’t known how to respond to that, so she went back to her dinner.

Now, she was starting to wonder how this was going to end. She knew that Ben felt something for her, but she wasn't sure exactly what that something was. She sure as hell didn't want to try to sort it out while they were still surrounded by various members of the Resistance, not all of whom appreciated having Ben around. Neither he nor Rey blamed them for being so mistrustful, but she was always quick to defend him if she heard people muttering. She was already set apart from most of the Resistance due to her status as the resident Jedi Master; her unapologetic defense of the man formerly known as Kylo Ren only served to further that divide.

Rey shook her head, brushing the memories aside as she packed the last of her things. “It's going to be fine,” she said, more to herself than Finn. “This is important to him. To both of us.”

Ben was already on the _Millennium Falcon_ when she made her way into the hangar, making some last-minute repairs with Rose. Chewie had gone back to Kashyyyk; he needed space to mourn in peace. He'd left the ship in Ben's hands, although Ben refused to actually claim ownership of it.

“We almost ready?” Rey called down into the engine room.

“Just a few more minutes,” Rose called back up. She and Ben had become fast friends, bonding over their affection for Han's broken-down old ship, among other things. Rose hadn't been in any rush to go to Chandrila, preferring to stay on Ajan Kloss, fixing up old ships and equipment before it officially became part of the New Republic's fleet.

Watching Rose and Ben’s tentative friendship—if you could even call it that; it was mostly a working relationship—bloom made Rey smile whenever she saw the two of them working together. Rose was one of the few people who wasn’t completely terrified of Ben, probably because she was more concerned about having other mechanics around to help divvy up the workload than she was about the fact that he’d previously ruled the First Order.

Finn and Rey lingered while Rose and Ben finished the last of their repairs. Rose practically jumped out of the engine room, and she and Finn bid Rey goodbye while Ben climbed out of the engine room, wiping his greasy hands off on a rag. 

“You ready to go?” he asked. Rey nodded, then turned and headed towards the cockpit, not needing to turn around to know that Ben was following her. 

Just the two of them. Alone. She’d been filled with anticipation ever since Ben had invited her on this trip, but now the anticipation turned to butterflies in her stomach. True, they spent most of their free time together these days, but this was going to be different.

They’d be sleeping in the same place. Not the same bed, or even the same room, but there was something titillating about the idea that she could just wake up in the middle of the night and wander down the hall to knock on his door, and maybe find him— _Stop it,_ she scolded herself. _You don’t even know if he wants you like that. Don’t inflict your dirty fantasies onto him._ Fortunately for both of them, they’d managed to gather enough self-control that their thoughts and feelings weren’t constantly trickling through the Force bond they were always going to share.

Sooner or later, Rey was going to have to tell Ben how she felt. She’d rather say it than have him learn it accidentally through their mental link. Hopefully, she’d find a good opportunity to have that conversation on this trip—as well as plan an exit strategy in case it went horribly wrong and she needed to get away from Ben and deal with her heartbreak on her own.

She didn’t _think_ it was going to come to that, but she was uncertain enough that she needed to plan the moment to confess it in advance.

The trip went smoothly at first. With the need to fly the ship manually rather than leave it on autopilot, there was enough to keep them from needing to have any deep, emotional conversations.

In retrospect, Rey probably shouldn’t have been surprised when something started to go wrong.

Alarms started blaring in the middle of the night cycle, forcing Rey and Ben up and out into the cockpit to run diagnostics. (Not that Rey had been sleeping all that deeply to begin with—how could she, when she was still searching for the words to explain her feelings to Ben?) To no one’s surprise, something in the _Falcon_ needed to be repaired urgently.

Ben let off a string to expletives, cursing the ship as he punched in the coordinates to find the nearest system that was safe for them to land on. Fortunately, there was one nearby, and he set a course to land on it as safely as the _Falcon_ ’s current condition would allow without paying attention to which planet it was.

Rey was already unbuckling her safety belt and rushing out of the cockpit in search of tools so that she and Ben could crawl on the top of the ship and see what needed fixing up there. As she walked down the ramp and onto the planet around them, she was struck by the strongest feeling of deja vu that she’d had in a long time. “I didn’t know there was this much green in the whole galaxy,” she whispered, an echo of the words she’d said the last time she was here.

“Rey,” Ben called out as he followed her down the ramp, “did you take the—” He stopped short as he saw that she was frozen in place. “What is it?” he asked, voice full of concern.

He hadn’t picked up on where they were, Rey realized. Either that, or he didn’t care. The idea that he didn’t care about the significance of breaking down on the planet where they’d first met bothered her for reasons she didn’t want to get into. Not while there was work to be done until they could safely leave Takodana and go to Naboo like they’d planned. “Nothing,”’ she said, shaking her head as if that could clear the memories.

It was just as well that Ben didn’t say anything about it; it wasn’t as if their first meeting was particularly great. Now that she was thinking about it, it was for the best that they didn’t acknowledge it. Things were complicated enough as it was. They didn’t need to rehash the time Ben had kidnapped and interrogated her. There was plenty to sort out without that extra memory.

That didn’t last long, however; the ruins of Maz’s castle came into sight as soon as they rounded the corner to check on the sensors on the bottom of the _Millennium Falcon_. This time, it was Ben who stopped short, gaping at the sight in front of him.

Rey knew she probably shouldn’t goad him about it, but she couldn’t stop the words from coming out of her mouth. “Oh, so now you remember,” she snarked.

“I—” She watched as Ben turned bright red and clamped his jaw shut. “Did you plan this?”

Rey’s eyebrows shot up. “You mean, did I conspire with the _Falcon_ ’s droid brains to cause the ship to break down when we happened to be passing through the Takodana system?”

Ben’s jaw clenched, but he didn’t take the bait. “Come on,” he grumbled, disappearing under the ship. “Let’s just get this over with.”

* * *

Maybe Rey didn’t plan for them to break down here, but it was too much of a coincidence that they ended up on Takodana for Ben’s comfort. Maybe it was the will of the Force, throwing their messy past in their face. They were going to have to work out all of the unsaid things between them eventually. He just wanted to put it off for a little while longer.

And maybe not touch the topic of their first meeting.

It had taken a while for the regret about that encounter to sink in. The embarrassment came later, around the time that Rey had agreed to team up with him in the fight against Palpatine. Ben had known for a while that his complicated feelings about the other half of his Force dyad involved romance, but he’d been able to shove those feelings under the rug for a long time.

Now, however, seeing the ruins of Maz’s castle on Takodana, the past came rushing back at him, and he didn’t want to deal with it.

Despite how smoothly things had been going for him and Rey on this trip prior to the unexpected stop, they were back to sniping at each other in record time. She seemed just as annoyed and frustrated as he was that they’d ended up back here.

No matter how far they came, they’d never be able to escape their past sins.

“What are you moping about?” Rey asked, peering down at him from where she was perched on the roof of the _Falcon_.

“Nothing.”

“Ben.”

“Where’s the hydrospanner?”

She held the tool up just out of reach. Ben scowled. “Do you want to get to Naboo or not?” he snapped.

Rey huffed, but she didn’t say anything as she dropped the tool, nearly hitting him in the head. He knew it was intentional; she was more than capable of directing its fall using the Force.

They continued working in tense silence. Ben could tell that something was bothering Rey, but he assumed it was just the memories associated with this place. That was his why he was restless, anyway.

Something must have finally made Rey snap, because she said, “You know what? Kark this,” then hopped down from the top of the _Millennium Falcon_ with no warning and scampered off into the woods. She barely acknowledged Ben him except for one last look back at him before she disappeared into the trees.

_What the kriff is she doing?_ he wondered. “Rey!” he shouted. “Get back here!” The last thing he wanted to do right now was go stomping off in the woods after her. Especially _these_ woods. When she didn’t respond, his scowl deepened. He’d have to go after her, then. Fine. “Rey!” he shouted into the forest around him.

It had only been a year and a half since they’d met, but Ben felt like an entire lifetime had passed. It was strange, clamoring through the forest, following the thread that lined him to Rey. He almost swore he heard echoes of another time they'd wandered through these woods. It wasn't the most pleasant of memories to relive.

He stumbled through the woods, calling Rey's name. She didn't respond, but he knew she was out there. It wasn't until he spotted her looking out at the trees in front of her that he realized where they were.

“Do you remember it?” she asked without turning to face him. Her tone was too even for him to know what kind of answer she was expecting, which only made him more annoyed by the unwelcome trip down memory lane.

A small part of Ben was tempted to deny the whole thing had ever happened, but there was only so much he could run away from. “Do you?” he asked.

“You can be quite terrifying when you want to be, did you know that?” Her tone was light, and somehow that made the question feel even worse.

“It was the effect I was going for at the time.”

She finally turned, smirking at him. “I was so scared of you.”

“I know.” He wasn't sure how to apologize. He'd never been able to figure out if this was even the sort of thing you _could_ apologize for.

“I didn't want anything to do with you or the Force,” she continued. “I just wanted to go back to Jakku.”

He knew that, too. She'd held onto that for as long as she could. Not for the first time, he wondered if he'd been too harsh that day on the _Supremacy._

There was clearly something on Rey's mind, but Ben couldn't figure out what it was. He considered reaching out with the Force and attempting to divine it that way, but this was certainly not the time or place to remind Rey of what he was capable of.

“Were you checking me out?”

The question caught him off-guard. “Was I what?”

“You know.” She stepped closer to where Ben stood frozen. “The day we met, when you cornered me here. Were you checking me out?”

Ben felt his face and ears heat up. He started to deny it, but then he paused. “It wasn't intentional,” he finally admitted. “I could sense that you were strong in the Force. The other stuff…” He trailed off, afraid to admit too much. “Look, Rey, we don't have to talk about this. The ship is fixed. We can leave for Naboo now.”

Her face fell. “Ben, we have to talk about it sometime.”

“No, we don't.”

“Why not?”

“Because we don't.”

She rolled her eyes. “That's not a reason.”

“Too bad.”

He hoped that she would give up, but he should have known her better than that. “Why don't you want to talk about this?” she asked, stepping closer to him.

He was pretty sure that she didn't want to hear the true reason, but he wasn't sure what else would make her drop the subject. Besides, she'd know if he was lying. “I'm not proud of it, okay? I did a lot of terrible things. Kidnapping and interrogating you was just one of the thousands of items on that list.”

“You've done good things, too,” she reminded him.

“Yeah, well, that doesn't negate anything,” he said bitterly. “Maybe if we'd started off on a better foot, I wouldn't feel so bad about this.”

“About what, kidnapping me?”

“Yes. No. Not just about that. I—shit.” He was going about this all wrong. “Why am I incapable of expressing any sort of emotion?” he muttered, mostly to himself.

“Oh, I don't know about that,“ she said. The levity was back in her tone. “I've seen impressive displays of anger from you.”

He failed to see what was so amusing about the situation. “That's not the type of emotion I'm talking about,” he growled.

“Then what is?”

“You don't want to hear it from me.” He couldn't find the right words, so he settled on letting his mental shields down a little bit, just enough to show her how much she meant to him. He’d been smitten as soon as he saw her in the woods that day, although it took him a while to realize that. All of the rage as he hunted her across the galaxy was another sort of mask, not completely unlike the one he’d worn to cover his face.

As soon as her eyes widened in surprise at the revelation, he slammed his mental shields shut and turned away. He didn't need to see the inevitable rejection. “Come on,” he said. “We're done talking about this.”

Rey wasn't content to let it drop, however. “No, we’re not.”

Ben didn’t want to argue about this. “There’s nothing left to talk about. This—this _bond_ between us, it means something different for you than it does for me.” He paused before adding, “It’s always meant something different for me.”

He braced himself for her revulsion. What he got instead was, “Oh yeah? Well newsflash, nerfherder. I've been in love with you this whole time!”

Ben whirled around, unable to believe his ears. But no, he must have been hearing right, because Rey had turned bright red, emotion rolling off of her in waves in the Force. “What?” he said, his voice barely above a whisper.

To give her credit, Rey didn’t seem hesitant at all now that she’d dropped that revelation onto him. “I meant what I said.”

“I find it hard to believe you were in love with me when you were calling me a monster.” Or when he was tearing through her mind in search of the map to Ahch-To, or when they were dueling on a dying planet, or in the year they spent leading on opposite sides of a war.

She looked away. “Well, no, maybe not,” she admitted. “But. . .” She looked back up at him. “You had to know I felt something for you after that.” She paused, considering her next words. “I wanted to take your hand that day on the _Supremacy_. Did you really not know that?”

Ben was dumbfounded. “What? _Why?_ ”

“You told me I wasn’t alone,” she said, taking another step closer to him. “And I believed you.”

“But—you—” Damn it, why couldn’t he think of the right words?

Rey’s expression softened. She lowered her mental shields, allowing him to see the full force of her feelings. He didn’t know what to do with the sheer amount of love and affection she had for him. It nearly brought him to his knees. “Ben,” she whispered, cupping his face in her palms. “Don’t be afraid. I feel it, too.”

* * *

They would have arrived on Naboo sooner, but by the time they walked out of the Takodanan forest and back onto the ship, they could barely keep their hands off of each other.

Neither Rey nor Ben was upset by the delay.

**Author's Note:**

> I am radioactivesaltghoul on [tumblr](https://radioactivesaltghoul.tumblr.com/) and [pillowfort](https://www.pillowfort.social/radioactivesaltghoul) and r_saltghoul on [twitter](https://twitter.com/r_saltghoul).


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